The Life and Times of the Jordans

Day 2 - Brian Head Amer. Mtn. Classic

Posted at 06:17 PM, August 22, 2008

First big day is done! Wow, what a day. 6 hours is a long time in the saddle, but the trails, scenery, race organization and temperatures were perfect.

Here is the before pic.

Today's stage took us from 8700 feet up somewhere up close to 10000. We rode mostly on the Virgin River Rim trail, which is scenic, swoopy, up and down, and a little rocky. No wicked decents (like BC Bike Race), just fun, fast singletrack. There were only about 5 miles of gravel road and maybe 10 of fire road, the rest was real nice trail. The guys got off to a good start, and I (Lucy) lost sight of them at mile 4. I was thrilled to see Drew at Aid station 1 at 29 miles, just as he was leaving the aid station. The kiss made me feel better . Just as I was getting ready to pull out of aid 1, the only other female in my category (sportwomen 30-39) pulled up, so off I pedaled at high speed. After the aid station was a hellaceous climb but then some good riding. I felt like I must be pullling away from her, but then at aid station 2, at 36.5 miles, she pulled in just as I was leaving again! Argh. All I wanted to do at this point was relax and pedal slowly, but my little streak of competitiveness wouldn't let me. I pushed it until mile 47, where, up ahead I saw a streak of orange. Hooray, it was Drew. What a happy sight. We ended up riding the next couple of miles together until the final downhill when his friend, Gravity, pulled him along to the finish 1 minute before me. I thought I saw my competitor come in 2 minutes behind me, but the result sheet says she did not finish (DNF). I have to double check that.

Jim finished in 5:48. Steve smoked us in 5:27. Lars DNFed with a mangled derailleur at only 11 miles into the course. This part of the trail was loaded with little pine branches that were just waiting to leap up into our spokes. One made it into Lars' wheel.

The top pro men finished in 3 hours and 45 minutes! Pro women were 4:25. How do they do that?

Steve after his recovery chocolate milk.

Toast.

Now we are relaxing before a pasta feed. Time to go work on the bikes.